Ken Loach in Compétition Again with “Looking for Eric”

The Cannes Film Festival loves football… One year after having Maradona on the Croisette for the Out-of-Competition documentary, Maradona by Kusturica, the Festival clearly shows its love of soccer by including a film featuring another legend, Eric Cantona in the company of the director, Ken Loach with the Competition feature Looking for Eric. Other cast member Steve Evets plays the postman from Manchester whose life is in upheaval, and who attempts to ward off the worst by calling out to his idol, King Cantona, the only one who could possibly help him.

Why Cantona? The Palme d’Or winner in 2006 for the Wind that Shakes the Barley, replies, “He’s original and bright and sharp and perceptive. He thinks a little outside the game and his jousts with journalists were always funny and witty. As we talked to him, his thoughts on the game and on his place in it and what he tried to do and how he approached it all became part of the project. When Eric walks in a room you really know he’s there. It’s true of very few people but he’s a man with considerable charisma and a
magnetism. Actors talk about natural projection, in that you can communicate from the stage to the back of the auditorium without apparently doing anything. Eric did that on a football field – he communicated to 70,000 people. That’s an extraordinary natural ability.”